Kansas School Districts to Suffer More From Budget Cuts

KSDElogo With the news of a further decrease in expected revenues in 2010 and 2011, the Kansas Legislature is going to have to make more budget cuts. After already suffering through cuts throughout this year, we all know who is going to have to shoulder much of the burden, those resources and functions that are greatly needed: hospitals, police and fire departments, universities, social work and public school districts, just to name a few. These groups are consistently getting hit with budget cuts that they cannot withstand. And knowing that they cannot take on more cuts, several districts have aligned themselves and are contemplating a lawsuit to ensure that the state allocates enough funds so the districts can provide quality education to their students.

The state’s school districts have already had to cut multiple teaching and administrative positions during the first round of cuts this year. Districts are seemingly always struggling to provide subjects like music, physical education, art & business classes to their students. You may think that business coursework doesn’t fit in that group, but as someone who is close to a person who works in a lower income district, business classes provide the knowledge and skills to a student populous where a lot of students don’t attend college.

A coursework in business allows them to learn basic skills such as computer technology, resume building, typing, heck, even customer service. For people who need to work right out of high school, those skill sets provide a small advantage over many others trying to find jobs at the same time. And without the opportunity to study this in high school, the students end up lacking in these skills and it becomes even harder to ever get out of a poverty/lower income situation. A lot on the right like to chalk lower income families up to laziness, but if they took a closer look as to why people stay in these situations, they would realize a lot of people are trapped and don’t have the opportunity to get out.

This is where education is extremely valuable. Education provides that path out and, as a progressive, I feel we need to fight to make sure everyone has the opportunity to make their situation better. If we continue to cut funding from schools, we are just taking away these opportunities. And when we cut funding from schools, which districts suffer the most? Those that NEED it the most, districts in poorer areas.

And yet, the legislature refuses to explore the idea of a tax increase. Even delaying proposed tax cuts was a huge no-no in the eyes of Republican lawmakers. In fact, Kansas has cut taxes to businesses by over $1.1 billion over the passed 15 years and Republicans continue to look to tax cuts to help with the current economic environment. While no one enjoys paying taxes, they do because it is for the greater good. Sure there are times when taxes are too high, but there are also times when tax cuts have gone too low and now entities are suffering that shouldn’t be suffering. The state has already attempted to underfund schools in 2006, and it took a ruling by the state Supreme Court to ensure that schools received proper funding.

However, the state has not held up its end of that ruling, holding back that money and cutting funding further to help balance the budget deficit. The legislature knew the state was going to be short and needed to increase revenues to pay the court ordered funding, but they seem to be blinded (or more likely receive a lot of campaign assistance or direct benefit) by the business lobby of the state.

Instead of the almost $4,600 base aid per pupil planned for 2009, the state now only provides $4,218 per pupil. That may not seem like that big of a difference, but almost $400 per student, multiplied by thousands of students quickly adds up. It would be even worse if the federal government did not provide almost $100 billion through the stimulus package earlier this year.

The more you cut from a school, the less likely you are going to be able to hire, and keep, the best teachers. Teachers know they work exceptionally hard for not much pay, but they do it for the students. But if their jobs are continuously made more difficult it’s more likely they are going to be looking for a position at a school district that has money, or a state that realizes the importance of public education. And when that happens, what happens to the lower income communities? They provide a worse educational experience for the students, which continues to hurt those kids.

We need to do what is right for the children of Kansas. Education is the base for almost everything else in our country. Better educated people provide better ideas for the security of our nation, ideas for improving the economy, elected officials, new ideas and successful small businesses. If we continue to cut funding to public schools, we are just hurting ourselves and, more importantly, our kids.

If you feel like contacting Governor Parkinson to tell him that Kansas’ school districts can’t burden anymore cuts, here is the information to do that: